Walnut Creek Vehicle Flies Off Highway

Walnut Creek, CA – March 4, 2016

A man and woman were seriously injured after their vehicle flew off a freeway and into a building late Wednesday night.

The two were taken to the trauma unit of John Muir Medical Center after the black BMW SUV lost control and went off eastbound Highway 24 at the Mt. Diablo Boulevard exit, just before the Interstate 680 split, California Highway Patrol Officer John Fransen said Thursday morning. The crash happened shortly after 10:50 p.m., he said.

The 23-year-old driver suffered cuts and bruises to his head and face, Fransen said. The 21-year-old front-seat passenger suffered a severe neck injury, as well as cuts and bruises to her face. Paramedics who were on the scene at the time of the incident treated both occupants.

The car left the freeway and hit a tree before landing on its roof and skidding into the basement of a building in the 2300 block of Boulevard Circle, Fransen said. The building houses a massage and yoga studio, and city engineers were examining its stability, Contra Costa Fire Protection District Fire Inspector Lisa Martinez said.

The car crashed into the secondary space of Just Be Yoga, a studio in the rear of a massage studio that dots the front of the building.

Drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the crash, Fransen said, but speed might be.